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December 12, 2005

Fletcher Professors Eileen Babbitt and Diana Chigas talk about their work training negotiators in Kosovo

Representatives from Kosovo’s Assembly, government ministries and political parties were placed in the same shoes as students in The Fletcher School’s negotiation courses as they underwent training in negotiation under Fletcher professors Eileen Babbitt and Diana Chigas last month.

The two Fletcher professors—both leading experts in the negotiation and conflict resolution field, talked about their work in Kosovo in November, where they provided training for Kosovar Serbs and Albanians in preparation for the upcoming final status negotiations. The talk, held on December 1, was organized by Fletcher’s International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Club.

The negotiations, which will be facilitated by the UN, will take place between representatives from Serbia and Montenegro and Kosovo. In order to prepare Kosovo’s representatives for the talks, which are expected to be pressure-laden and very contentious, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission organized the negotiation training workshops, which were held in October and November of 2005.

Professors Babbit and Chigas said they faced two major challenges during the training workshops. The first, Professor Chigas said, was integrating their training program into an ongoing training program by the Center for Advanced Negotiation Studies based in Geneva and the Washington-based Public International Law and Policy Group.

“We contacted these institutions for us to know what kind of training had already been undertaken and who had been involved, so that we can make sure that the training process would be very fluid and would not overlap,” she said.

Professor Chigas said that they also contacted the Project on Justice in Times of Transition, a New York-based organization that researches conflict settlement. Through them, Chigas said they were able to work withRoelf Meyer, leading negotiator for the African National Congress, and Wolfgang Petrich, former international special envoy for Kosovo, both of whom were very generous in sharing their insights and experiences with the group.

Time limits were the second challenge , since the two professors had only two and a half days to conduct the workshop. Professor Babbitt said that while they had initially wanted to cover a lot of topics, they had to substantially revise their original agenda to cover only the most important issues.

“We exerted extra effort in selecting the materials to make sure that they were relevant to the participants. Because of the limited time, and considering the nature of the negotiations that they would be undertaking, we decided to concentrate on training them on how to focus on their interests and positions, understanding the other side’s interests, and knowing their BATNA, or Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement,” Professor Babbitt said.

She stressed that the workshop did not deal with the substance of the coming talks. “We focused on the processes, using a lot of the exercises and case studies that we use in the negotiation courses in Fletcher, to work on the skills that the participants would need in pursuing their interests and increase their negotiating strength,” she said, adding that, "Even simple simulations can have a huge impact on team-building."

Brian Cathcart, a MALD first-year student, was curious to know how the two professors’ gender and culture affected the perception and treatment towards them of the participants, who, except for two, were Muslim males.

Professor Babbitt replied that it hardly had any impact. “Fortunately, there’s a lot of status that comes with being a Fletcher professor,” she quipped.

The two professors also touched briefly on the training that they conducted for Serbian negotiators, which was more of a strategy session rather than a skills session, to help prepare them for the negotiations on Kosovo’s status.

The workshop had a very positive impact on the group, Professor Chigas said. “Those who were invited but did not come regretted their decision because of the positive feedback from the participants,” she said.

Professor Babbitt also said that while the composition of the negotiating team has yet to be finalized, the authorities in Kosovo would have to ensure that all interests are well represented.

“This would enable the team to articulate comprehensively their interests in the negotiation process,” she said.

By Sharon Rivera, MALD '07

Posted by jessica at December 12, 2005 08:54 AM